IIn our 10-Year Assessments and Updates, projects are identified that address reliability issues, economic benefits, loss savings, transmission service issues, generation interconnections or some distribution interconnections, or any combination of the above. In general, these projects address system performance issues identified using the governing system planning criteria or economic benefits for customers. We have numerous other projects under way or under evaluation that address other issues such as obsolete substation equipment, poor line facility condition, line relocations and most distribution interconnections. The projects referenced in the project tables PR-2 through PR-26 generally include only those projects that at least in part address system performance issues.
To facilitate an understanding of the status of the various future projects, we classify projects into one of three possible categories – Planned, Proposed or Provisional. Each classification has specific criteria based on the status of the project as outlined below:
Planned projects:
- ATC planning is complete;
- if required, we have applied for regulatory approvals, which may be pending or have been issued;
- project may be under construction or in construction planning phase; and
- project typically is included in power flow models used to analyze transmission service requests.
Proposed projects:
- ATC planning is not complete;
- ATC has not yet pursued regulatory approvals;
- project represents ATC’s preliminary preferred project alternatives from a system performance perspective; and
- project typically is not included in power flow models used to analyze transmission service requests.
Provisional projects:
- ATC planning is not complete;
- ATC has not yet sought regulatory approvals;
- project does not necessarily represent ATC’s preliminary preferred project alternative, but does reflect meeting the need identified; and
- project is not included in power flow models used to analyze transmission service requests.
In the 2001-2007 10-Year Assessments and Updates, we identified or assumed responsibility for 600 projects that address system performance issues. Figure PR-6 illustrates the status of all projects ATC has considered from 2001-2007.
The categories outlined in Figure PR-6 can be defined as follows:
- Replaced - number of projects replaced by another alternative since our inception
- Cancelled - number of projects cancelled since our inception
- Complete - number of projects completed since our inception
- Regulatory - number of projects either regulatory approved or currently under review by the PSCW
- Under construction - number of projects currently being constructed
- Planned, Proposed and Provisional- refer to the above classifications
Regarding Figure PR-6, it is worthwhile to note that:
- ATC has completed 228 projects and another 12 are under construction. Notable projects most recently completed are listed in Table PR-1. Projects under construction range from capacitor bank installations to the Arrowhead-Weston/Gardner Park transmission line project.
- 85 projects have been replaced with alternate project solutions. It is not unusual that the status of certain projects will change or evolve since customer needs and uses of the transmission system continually are changing.
- ATC canceled 120 projects that were identified in previous Assessment reports due to changing needs and up-to-date information. Most of these projects were relatively minor projects, involving only replacement of equipment at existing substations.
- 167 future projects are in various stages of evaluation or development (Planned (which includes Regulatory and Under Construction), Proposed or Provisional).
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